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013 - A Winter of Quiet and a Transfer · Six Years with the Texas Rangers, 1875 to 1881

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  Speaker 1: Chapter ten of Six Years with the Texas Rangers eighteen
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  Speaker 1: seventy five to eighteen eighty one. This is a LibriVox recording.
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  Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
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  Speaker 1: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Read
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  Speaker 1: by Wayne Cook. Six Years with the Texas Rangers eighteen
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  Speaker 1: seventy five to eighteen eighty one by James B. Gillette.
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  Speaker 1: A Winter of Quiet and a Transfer. In the fall
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  Speaker 1: of eighteen seventy eight, a man named Dowdy moved from
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  Speaker 1: South Texas and settled on the headwaters of the Johnson
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  Speaker 1: Fork of the Guadalupe River in Kirk County. His family
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  Speaker 1: consisted of himself, wife, three grown daughters, a grown son,
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  Speaker 1: and a young son twelve or fourteen years old. Mister
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  Speaker 1: Dowdy owned two or three thousand sheep and was grazing
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  Speaker 1: them months of fine upland pasture just above his own.
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  Speaker 1: He contracted for his winter supply of corn, and when
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  Speaker 1: the first load of grain arrived at the ranch, the
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  Speaker 1: three girls walked out half a mile to where the
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  Speaker 1: sheep were grazing to stay with their younger brother, while
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  Speaker 1: the elder returned to the ranch to masure and receive
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  Speaker 1: the corn. When young mister Dowdy returned to the sheep
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  Speaker 1: an hour later, he was horrified to find that his
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  Speaker 1: three sisters and his little brother had been massacred by
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  Speaker 1: a band of roving Indians from the science on a
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  Speaker 1: high bluff nearby. The sheep and their herders had been
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  Speaker 1: under observation by the Redskins for some time, and seeing
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  Speaker 1: the only man leave, the Indians descended upon the defenseless
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  Speaker 1: girls and boy and killed them. As that there was
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  Speaker 1: no ranger company within one hundred miles of Kirk County
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  Speaker 1: at the time, a party of frontiersmen quickly gathered and
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  Speaker 1: followed the murderers, but after pursuing them for nearly two
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  Speaker 1: hundred miles isles, the posse lost the trail in the
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  Speaker 1: rough Devil's River country. Kerr County then called for rangers,
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  Speaker 1: and General Jones ordered Lieutenant Reynolds to proceed to that
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  Speaker 1: county and to go into camp for the winter at
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  Speaker 1: the Dowdy ranch. This descent upon the Dowdy family was
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  Speaker 1: the last raid ever made by Indians in Kirk County
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  Speaker 1: and was perhaps the most heartrending. We herded our horses
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  Speaker 1: that winter on the very ground where the unfortunate young
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  Speaker 1: Missus Dowdy and their brother were killed. At the time
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  Speaker 1: they were murdered, the ground was soft and muddy from
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  Speaker 1: a recent rain, so one could see for months afterward
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  Speaker 1: where the poor girls had run on foot while the
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  Speaker 1: Indians charged on horseback. I remember one of the young
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  Speaker 1: ladies ran nearly four hundred yards before she was overtaken
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  Speaker 1: and shot full of arrows by a heartless redskin. These
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  Speaker 1: murderers were probably kickapoos and liponds that lived in the
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  Speaker 1: Santa Rosa Mountains Old Mexico and frequently raided southwest Texas.
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  Speaker 1: Stole hundreds of horses and killed many people while guarding
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  Speaker 1: their horses. On the ground where the Dowdy family was killed,
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  Speaker 1: the ranger boys built a rock monument eight or ten
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  Speaker 1: feet high to mark the spot where the victims fell.
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  Speaker 1: Lieutenant Reynolds kept scouting parties in the field at intervals
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  Speaker 1: throughout the winter, but like lightning, Indians never strike twice
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  Speaker 1: in the same place. The winter of eighteen seventy eight
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  Speaker 1: seventy nine was the quietest one I ever spent as
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  Speaker 1: a ranger. Kirk County was pretty well cleaned of outlaws,
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  Speaker 1: and we made fewer arrests that season than ever before.
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  Speaker 1: The Rangers encountered but one real bad man in Kirk County.
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  Speaker 1: His name was Eli Wickson, and he was wanted for
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  Speaker 1: murder in East Texas. It was known that Wixen would
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  Speaker 1: be at the poles of the county Preescinct to vote
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  Speaker 1: on election day, November eighteen seventy eight, so Lieutenant Rentals
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  Speaker 1: sent Corporal Warren and Privates Will Banister and Abe Anglan
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  Speaker 1: to arrest Wixen. Corporal Warren found his man at the
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  Speaker 1: poles and lost no time in telling Wixen what he
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  Speaker 1: was there for, and ordered him to unbuckle his belt
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  Speaker 1: and drop his pistol. Wexon hesitated and finally called on
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  Speaker 1: his friends to protect him from the rangers. The crowd
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  Speaker 1: came to his relief, and for a time it looked
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  Speaker 1: as if there would be trouble. Wegxon abused the rangers,
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  Speaker 1: called them a set of dirty dogs, and dared them
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  Speaker 1: to shoot him. Corporal Warren was brave and resolute. He
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  Speaker 1: told Wixen his abuse did not amount to anything, that
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  Speaker 1: the rangers were there to rest him and they were
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  Speaker 1: going to do it. The corporal warned the citizens to
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  Speaker 1: be careful how they broke the law, and if they
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  Speaker 1: started anything, he declared, Wixen would be the first man killed. Then,
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  Speaker 1: while Banister and Anglin held the crowd back with their
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  Speaker 1: drawn winchesters, Warren disarmed Wixen, grasped his bridle reins, and
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  Speaker 1: led him away without further trouble. Lieutenant Reynolds took no
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  Speaker 1: chances with that sort of man, and as soon as
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  Speaker 1: Wixen was in camp he was promptly handcuffed and shackled.
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  Speaker 1: This usually took the slack out of all so called
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  Speaker 1: bad men, and it worked like a charm with our
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  Speaker 1: new prisoner. As a winter wore on, Lieutenant Reynolds, with
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  Speaker 1: but little to do, became restless. He once said of
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  Speaker 1: himself that he never had the patience to sit down
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  Speaker 1: in camp and wait for a band of Indians to
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  Speaker 1: raid the county so he might get a race. Action
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  Speaker 1: was what he wanted all the time, and he chafed
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  Speaker 1: like a chained bear when compelled to sit idly in camp.
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  Speaker 1: When the legislature met early in eighteen seventy nine, it
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  Speaker 1: was known that it would be difficult to get an
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  Speaker 1: appropriation for frontier defense from time immemorial, there has been
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  Speaker 1: an element from East Texas in the legislature that has
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  Speaker 1: fought the ranger appropriation, and in this instance that element
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  Speaker 1: fought the Ranger bill harder than ever. The fund appropriated
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  Speaker 1: for frontier defense two years before was now running short,
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  Speaker 1: and in order to make it hold out until it
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  Speaker 1: could be ascertained what the legislature would do, it became
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  Speaker 1: necessary for General Jones to order the various captains to
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  Speaker 1: discharge three men out of each company in a week.
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  Speaker 1: A similar order was promulgated, and this was kept up
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  Speaker 1: until the battalion was reduced to almost one half its
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  Speaker 1: former strength. Lieutenant Reynolds was compelled to sit idly by
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  Speaker 1: and see his fine experienced rangers dwindle away before his eyes,
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  Speaker 1: and what he said about those short sighted lawmakers would
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  Speaker 1: not look nice in print. In March eighteen seventy nine,
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  Speaker 1: Captain Pat Dolan, commander of Company F, then stationed on
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  Speaker 1: the NUS's River, seventy five miles southwest of Reynolds Company,
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  Speaker 1: wrote to Lieutenant Reynolds that a big band of horse
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  Speaker 1: and cattle thieves were reported operating in the vicinity of
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  Speaker 1: the head of Devil's River and along Nuesse's. He wished
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  Speaker 1: to take a month's scout out in that country, but
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  Speaker 1: since the ranging companies had been so reduced, he did
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  Speaker 1: not feel strong enough to operate against them alone and
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  Speaker 1: leave a reserve in his own camp. He therefore asked
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  Speaker 1: Lieutenant Reynolds to send a detachment to cooperate with him.
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  Speaker 1: I was then second sergeant and with five men, I
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  Speaker 1: was ordered to report to Captain Dolan for a three
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  Speaker 1: week scout on Devil's River and the picos. I reported
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  Speaker 1: to the commander of Company F and we scouted up
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  Speaker 1: the Nueces River, then turned west to Beaver Lake on
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  Speaker 1: the head of Devil's River. From the lake, we went
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  Speaker 1: over on Johnson's Run and covered the country thoroughly, but
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  Speaker 1: without finding the reported outlaws. One morning, after starting out
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  Speaker 1: on our day's scout, Captain Dolan halted the command and
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  Speaker 1: taking with him Private Rob went in search of water.
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  Speaker 1: A heavy fog came up after he left us and
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  Speaker 1: hung over the country the greater part of the day.
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  Speaker 1: The Captain did not return to us, and Sergeant G. K.
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  Speaker 1: Chin ordered his men to fire their guns to give
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  Speaker 1: the lost ones our position. We remained in the vicinity
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  Speaker 1: until night, and then returned to Howard's Well, a watering
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  Speaker 1: place on Johnson's Run. The following morning, we scouted out
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  Speaker 1: to the point from which the captain had left us
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  Speaker 1: the day before. It was now clear, the sun shining brightly,
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  Speaker 1: but the lost men could not be found. Dolan was
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  Speaker 1: an experienced frontiersman, and we concluded that after finding himself
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  Speaker 1: lost in the fog, he would return to his headquarters
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  Speaker 1: on the US's one hundred and twenty five miles away.
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  Speaker 1: Sergeant Chin therefore headed the command for this camp, and
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  Speaker 1: when we reached it, we found Captain Dolan and Private
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  Speaker 1: Rob had preceded us. They had traveled through a bad
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  Speaker 1: Indian country with nothing to eat but what venison they
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  Speaker 1: had killed from Dolan's company. I marched my detail back
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  Speaker 1: to Company E by easy stages and reached our camp
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  Speaker 1: at Dowdy's Ranch the last week in March. With our
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  Speaker 1: horses ridden down. We had covered something like five hundred
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  Speaker 1: miles without accomplishing anything. As soon as I arrived, I
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  Speaker 1: walked up to the Lieutenant's tent to make my report.
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  Speaker 1: I was met by First Sergeant C. L. Neville, who
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  Speaker 1: told me that Lieutenant Reynolds had resigned and left the company.
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  Speaker 1: At first I thought the sergeant was only joking, But
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  Speaker 1: when I was convinced that the lieutenant had really gone,
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  Speaker 1: I was shot beyond measure. The blow was too strong
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  Speaker 1: and sudden for me, and I'm not ashamed now, at
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  Speaker 1: sixty five years of age, to admit that I slipped
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  Speaker 1: out of camp, sat down on the bank of the
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  Speaker 1: Guadalupe River and cried like a baby. It seemed as
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  Speaker 1: if my best friend on earth had gone forever. Reynolds
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  Speaker 1: had had to be transferred from Coldwell's company to his
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  Speaker 1: own when I was just a stripling of a boy.
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  Speaker 1: As soon as I was old enough to be trusted
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  Speaker 1: with a scout of men and the vacancies occurred, I
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  Speaker 1: was made second corporal, first corporal, and then second sergeant.
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  Speaker 1: I was given the best men in the company and
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  Speaker 1: set against the most noted outlaws and hardened criminals in
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  Speaker 1: the state of Texas. Lieutenant Reynolds gave me every chance
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  Speaker 1: in the world to make a name for myself, and
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  Speaker 1: now he was gone. I felt the loss keenly. I
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  Speaker 1: feel sure the record's now on file in Austin will
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  Speaker 1: bear me out when I say Reynolds was the greatest
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  Speaker 1: captain of his time and perhaps of all time, the
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  Speaker 1: state of Texas lost a matchless officer when Madge Reynolds
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  Speaker 1: retired to private life after leaving the Ranger Service. He
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  Speaker 1: made Lampasses his home and served that county as a
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  Speaker 1: sheriff for several terms. The legislature finally made a small
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  Speaker 1: appropriation for frontier defense. Sergeant Neville was ordered to report
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  Speaker 1: at Austin with Company E. The reorganization of the command
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  Speaker 1: Reynolds's resignation practically broke up the company, and though Sergeant
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  Speaker 1: Neville was made lieutenant of Company E and afterward raised
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  Speaker 1: a captaincy and left behind him an enviable record, yet
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  Speaker 1: he was not a Madge Reynolds by a long shot.
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  Speaker 1: On reaching Austin, r Saware and the Banister Boys secured
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  Speaker 1: their transfer to to Captain Marsh's Company B, while the
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  Speaker 1: Carter Boys Ben and Dock, c. R. Connor and Bill
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  Speaker 1: Derrick resigned the service and retired to private life. Abe
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  Speaker 1: Angland became a policeman at Austin, Texas. Henry Maltimore and myself,
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  Speaker 1: at our requests, were transferred to Lieutenant Baylor's Company C
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  Speaker 1: for duty in El Paso County. With my transfer to
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  Speaker 1: this command, the winter of inaction was over, and I
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  Speaker 1: was soon to see some exciting times along the upper
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  Speaker 1: Rio Grande and of Chapter ten